Pitching Projects and Products to Executives

Author

Released

12/16/2010

In Pitching Projects and Products to Executives, author Dane Howard interviews executives and product managers from renowned design firms and corporations like Google, Apple, and Adobe, who share their insider take on how to effectively move projects and product ideas forward. Video and multimedia producer Richard Koci Hernandez weaves the interviews together into a captivating visual narrative. The soft skills course shows the practical techniques, processes, and communication styles employed to sell to executives more effectively, and to bring ideas to life.

Topics include:

Getting and incorporating feedback before the pitch

Creating a list of key stakeholders

Deciding on the format of the meeting

Effective prototyping

Providing an intimate setting

Being succinct and staying on-track

Making the presentation

Closing the deal

Skill Level Appropriate for all

45m 2s

Duration

210,363

Views

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- You ever wonder how some of those creativeprojects get approved for development?Get built by teams or even produced for TV, film,or software development?I did.I'm Dane Howard, a 17 year veteran designer,and entrepreneur.For years I developed my craft to help create thegreat creative execution.One of the things I never learned in school washow to move that creative initiative forward.How do you give it a change to succeed?Whether our project was pitched to a client,or inside a Fortune 100 company,how do you set up your creative projects for approval?How do you best prepare to get the funding, head count,or even get the project off the ground?Well, I wanted to share key things that I've learnedon the job, from some of the smartest people I know.

My colleagues, collaborators, and some of the veryexecutives that have helped give me the skillsand approval to move these projects forward.- I think my whole thing with pitching is no,there should never be a high-stakes pitch.If it's a high-stakes pitch where there's 15 peoplein the room, there shouldn't be any surprisesto you at that point, right.If there's a crucial stake-holder, you want to getthem involved early, and have it be very informaland have a lot of options, right.

So, I think there's no news in the big pitch.- What I think is important if you actually want toget buy-in on any project, you need to do your homework.You can't just go in and wing it.You need to understand what competitors are doing.You need any type of metrics or analytics.You need any additional insight that makes youridea believable.- The big mistake the younger, sort of product managersand engineers make, is they spend a whole lot of timesort of setting up what it is that they're gonnatalk about, when basically, you just wanna show it, right.

But they're so proud and nervous that they have togo through all these like, and then, and this, and thisblah blah blah.So my thing is just put it out there as quicklyas you can.- Never make it your idea.And that might apply to absolutely everybody.Everything you're doing around building consensusfor an idea or building enthusiasm around the ideais never reinforce the point that it was your idea.

- I think one of the most important things ofany designer is to realize that they don't existin a bubble.And one of the most important skills that I've learnedis to socialize.- So I have a very strong belief that the higherfidelity the better off you are.I'm kind of an anti-design strategy person.Or at least I'm accused of being anti-design strategyin that making that thing, the closer you can getto actually making that thing, the closeryou are to really apprehending all of the challenges.

So, the best work happens when there is nodistinction between design and making.- Now, the taking something and putting it inan executive's hands or the equivalent of thatas quickly as possible is so important.Is if it's pretty clear you've closed, stop.